


Don't Hurt Yourself

by Elora_Lane



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Becho friends to lover fic, F/M, I actually love Echo, I multiship, I write what I want..., This is the Becho backstory we all need, any way, if I feel inspired there will be more., no Echo hate in this house, no bellarke or becho hate either, some intentional and unintentional self-harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 22:24:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19327300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elora_Lane/pseuds/Elora_Lane
Summary: When Echo goes with the team to The Ring, she doesn't fit in. She has some survivor's guilt- and it isn't until she almost dies that anyone steps in.Basically, this is the Becho friendship backstory we all deserve.





	Don't Hurt Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> If there are interest and inspiration on my part, I will write more. 
> 
> TW: for self-harm

When Bellamy had asked Echo come into space with him, she had no hope of them ever being more than tentative allies. 

But then, reality set in. The trauma of their losses caught up with them. Echo, feeling responsible for the death of many (and perhaps all) of her people, took to carving one thousand marks into her leg- it was likely a fraction of the lives she was responsible for. She had asked Harper for a needle and thread- knowing that she’d be none the wiser. After finding a storage closet, she made that her room and got to work.  

Every day for almost three years, Echo sliced a mark into one of her thighs- trading between the two if one would become far too raw or start to remain red too long. On the nine hundred and ninety-ninth day, Echo used her last match. She figured one time without burning the mark into her skin (and killing the germs) wouldn’t hurt her.  

The next day, she felt warm and tired. The day after she was in pain all over. As she got sicker, people actually came to check on her. She told them she was fine, just tired. Most of them left her alone. Then she fell into a heavy and cold sleep.  

It was Bellamy who found her. When he found out she wasn’t eating, he came to check on her- and found her passed out and pale, on the floor of the storage closet. She was in a tank top and underwear, and he saw them all. The source of the infection had been her kill marks.   

She still has no idea how Monty came up with the antibiotics- but since she had never had any form of them, he was able to use something weak that he had been able to produce, and it helped her.  

She lived.  

But she was in trouble.  

When she went back to her “room” Bellamy was standing outside of it, his arms across his chest. He carried an odd air with him, but Echo gave it no mind. She simply gestured for him to move, and opened the door. To her shock, all of her stuff was gone.  

“You’re not bunking alone anymore."

That was all he said, as he jerked his head and motioned for her to follow him.  

“Why?” She asked, who the hell wanted to bunk with her anyway? She was a traitor many times over to all of these people- and she would never forget it.  

“So that you don’t kill yourself,” Bellamy said without a glance toward her. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we've lost enough of the human race- and I doubt you’ll survive sepsis again. So, until I’m convinced you aren’t a threat to yourself, you’re bunking with me.”  

“Wait. With you? But you hate me.”  

“I don't hate you, Echo. I- I don't know if I can trust you, but I sure as hell didn’t save you so that you could kill yourself.” he said pointedly, “Don’t worry, I won’t make you uncomfortable. I would have you stay with Raven- but she is hardly in her room- so the point would be nill.”  

And that’s how it started. Bellamy Blake, the man she had betrayed over and over again, let her take the bed in his room, while he slept on a glorified mat. The first night had been awkward- Echo wasn’t good with social cues- and when Bellamy shrugged his head (apparently a warning for her to turn around), she wasn’t sure what he meant. But in front of his bag, he turned around and stripped down entirely. Pulling a pair of loose pajama pants out, he put them on.  

With a blush creeping over her face, Echo had turned around.  

“I, uh, like to sleep with my shirt off... Does that bother you?” he asked tentatively.  

Clearing her throat, she tried to speak. Finally, she turned and shook her head. His front looked just as good as his back, and well... it was obvious that he could tell she was appreciating his physique, because he put his hands on his hips and grinned, “like what you see?”  

“Oh... um,” Echo was mortified. If it weren’t Bellamy, she could shake it off. And yeah, she had seen his body at Mount Weather... But this was different. He was older now- more of a man, and Echo... well, it had been a long time for her since her last lover. Swallowing her embarrassment, she spoke, “you look fine. I’m going to sleep.”  

With that, Bellamy turned the overhead lights off. Only then did Echo strip to her tank and underwear. When she woke up, Bellamy was gone, and she got ready in peace.  

To her surprise, Bellamy opted to spend more time with her than she thought he would. He asked her if she had heard stories- myths and legends from the Greeks and Romans. With little else to do, Echo listened. She found it entertaining. Between his stories, Monty and Raven teaching her about science, and sparring with Harper she was able to keep busy. She spent six months with them before their Unity Day celebration.  

Everyone except for Bellamy was in the common area celebrating with some halfway decent algae and something that was strong and alcoholic. Echo asked if she could take some to Bellamy and excused herself. What she found in the room shocked her. Bellamy was standing with his head against the wall, punching it- his knuckles bleeding.  

“Bellamy?” 

“Go away,” he said, his voice weak and hopeless. 

“No,” Echo said. She wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t leave her... she couldn’t just leave him.  

“Please, Echo,” he begged, “I can’t be around anyone when I think about...” 

 _Oh._  

It was this again- Bellamy's ghost. When they first got on The Ring, Bellamy had been a dick to everyone for a solid six months. Finally, it took Raven yelling at him- she told him he needed to get over the fact that he was in love with a ghost, and he sure as hell needed to stop taking Clarke’s death out on everyone else, too. “After all,” Raven had seethed, “we all lost her. Not just you, Bellamy.” 

He had been quiet after that, and slowly he began to come back to himself. But Unity Day must remind him of her, or so Echo thought, “Are you thinking about-”  

“Don’t." he said, putting the breaks on her speech, "Please, don't say her name. I- I can’t bear it.”  

“Bellamy,” Echo breathed, daring to enter the room. Slowly, she set the drink down, “you don’t have to talk about her right now. and you don’t have to talk about her to me... unless you want to. But please, don’t hurt yourself.”  

Dazed Bellamy looked down at his hands and exhaled in defeat, “What do you do when every woman you’ve ever loved has died because of you?”  

Echo took in a sharp breath, “They didn’t die because of you, Bellamy.”  

He gave a look that said,  _prove it._ So, she tried. 

“Gina was my fault- the attack on Mount Weather, remember? As far as your other ghost- Clarke. I should have offered to do what she did. Perhaps that would have begun to make amends for the things I did against you.”  

“No... Clarke wouldn’t have wanted that,” Bellamy whispered, “and neither would I.”   

“You knew her better than anyone,” Echo said, ignoring the second part of his statement, “I’m sure she would have wanted you to be happy. She would have wanted you to remember the good, forgive the trespasses, and heal.”  

“I just- I never told her,” he said, tearing up even more, “I wanted to. I was about to- and she stopped me. Maybe she didn’t-” 

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Echo said sternly, “the way that you both looked at one another, she loved you- she just, she was surviving, Bellamy. And if she had lost you- I don’t think she could have taken that.” 

“Yeah, I guess if it were the other way around...” he shook his head, clearly working it out. At this point, Bellamy seemed calm enough for Echo to give him his drink and algae.  

“Thanks,” he said, “I- uh... I’m sorry if this was awkward.”  

“Hey, there's not much to do up here,” she smiled, “and I can’t believe I’m saying this- but maybe we should talk things out, instead of drawing blood?” 

“Yeah, maybe you’re right...” he eyed her thoughtfully, as he downed his drink.  


End file.
